The Blüdhaven Flock
by candycrazy12346
Summary: Instead of Bruce Wayne taking him in, Richard Grayson spent the first years after his parents death in Juvie, before running away to become a superhero on his own. Now, several years later and four other kids greater, he protects Blüdhaven, the most crime infested city in America. To bad this catches the attention of the league... Rated for occasional swearing. AU.
1. Chapter 1- The Mini-League

Hey guys, I'm back with one of those two new YJ AU fics I promised. I told myself I wouldn't post the first chapter until I'd written the next two, but this story has been stewing a while and I was too exited not to post it. Updates should happen pretty regularly, but as always, reviews speed me up. Please read the end notes for important announcements and explanations of my head cannons for this story.

NOTE: This story will eventually contain everyone in the season 1 team, Batgirl, Alfred, and most league members, as well as focusing on Richard Grayson/Nightwing, Jason Todd/Red Hood, Tim Drake/Robin, Damian Al Gul/Renegade, and Stephanie Brown/Spoiler.

* * *

"We've had a difficult time tracking you down."

A young man stared back at Batman from the screen, a mask covering his eyes. He looked younger than Batman would have expected, but his face gave nothing away. It had actually been hard to track the man down, harder than expected. Nightwing would have been an excellent hacker for it to have taken a few days, let alone two weeks.

"That is sort of the point. I stay in Blüdhaven, you stay in Gotham. You catch your villains, I catch mine. Around here people don't like outside interference, good or bad. The time my associate helped you catch the Joker was a one time thing."

"Be that as it may, I want to offer you a deal. Something that I believe we could both benefit from."

Nightwing scoffed. "What part of, 'no interference' do you not get?"

Batman fought the urge to roll his eyes and opted instead for ignoring the young man's comment all together.

"The league would like to offer you membership. I know you say you don't want help in the hero business, but having the league's resources could be invaluable in some situations."

He plowed on before Nightwing had a chance to respond. "I used to think like you, but since then joining has paid off. There have been multiple times I wouldn't have been able to save someone if the league members weren't there to back me up."

The younger hero was silent, appearing to think things over. Finally he sighed.

"Why do you want me to join anyways? Don't you think I'm a bit young to be in your 'band of heroes'? An what about my... associates? Would they be offered spots as well?"

Batman's eye brows came together a fraction. He had figured the young man to be somewhere in his early twenties, the 'associate' he spoke of, Red Hood, not much younger.

"We wan't you because you have a reputation for doing exceptional work. No other hero has been brave enough to touch Blüdhaven with a ten yard pole, and yet here we are, with crime levels lower than they've been in decades. Your methods might be unorthodox, but it's obvious you're skilled, Red Hood and the colorful one to." Mentioning 'the colorful one' was really just a shot in the dark. He'd hear talk of there being three heroes in Blüdhaven, but even less was known about the third, and it was only a guess that Nightwing and he were 'associates' as well.

"As for your age... How old are you?"

Nightwing's chin came up slightly, and his eyes narrowed challengingly. "Almost nineteen."

Eighteen? Shit. That was to young to join, they usually didn't indict members under twenty-one. He couldn't ask a kid to join the Justice League, or the embers of Young Justice would throw a fit... Wait, young justice!

"You're right, that is to young to join the League. How about an alternate arrangement then."

The boy's eyes narrowed even more, but he didn't speak.

"We don't advertise it, but the Justice League has a sort of... Second branch. It's of teen heroes like yourselves, or the sidekicks of league members. They do mostly covert missions, staying under the radar. I assume your 'associates' as you keep calling them are younger than you?"

Nightwing nodded slightly.

"Well, they could join as well, and when you turn twenty-one(1), you can become an official member of the league."

There was silence for another few moments after Batman's proposal, but finally Nightwing spoke again.

"Fine, I'm willing to join if and only if Red Hood, Robin and I get a chance to meet this mini-justice league before hand, and decide that it'll be worth it."

Batman kept his face carefully neutral, but inside he was smirking at having been able to convince the kid.

"Next saturday then, 12 am. Go to Happy Harbor beach, on the north side. Black Canary will meet you there and bring you to the cave."

Nightwing nodded. "I'll be there, but if we decide our answer is no at the end, that decision is final." As soon as he finished speaking, the video feed cut off.

Batman sighed, wondering if the kid would be more trouble than he was worth.

**_%^$$^%*^%(^)*_**

Dick Grayson leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. He'd hoped telling Batman that he was 18 would get the man off his case, but instead it had opened up a whole new can of worms, the wiggly annoying type of worm that Tim sometimes found and tried to bring inside.

Speaking of Tim, what would he possibly tell the kids? _'Yeah, we're going to investigate a kiddie team of heroes living inside a mountain, and possibly join them. No worries though, it's not like we trust them or anything, in fact, they'll probably interfere with out lives a hole lot, and being the do-gooders they are, if they knew my real age or where we leave, they'd force us all back into foster care.' _That would fly well.

A knock sounded on the door of the bedroom Dick with two of his younger siblings, Damien and Stephanie. He sighed again and removed his mask, then closed the laptop and turned to face the door.

"What's up?"

Tim pocked his head in and gave Dick his signature big grin. "Jay said to come get you, he and Steph made macaroni."

Dick got up and followed his little brother out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, where Jason was spooning bright orange noodles into five bowls. Their apartment wasn't huge, only four rooms and a little hallway space, but it was home, and they'd done their best to make it feel that way. The furniture was sparse -there weren't many things you could afford as a mechanic feeding four hungry demons- but the walls were decorated with drawings and pictures of the five of them, and everything was kept clean. Not bad for a couple of kids.

Jason picked up a bowl and set it in front of Tim, who was now sitting at their small plastic table, talking happily to Damian. In a few minutes, all of them were seated, the younger kids discussing anything from flowers to super villain ass kicking, Jason occasionally giving his input while Dick ate and watched.

None of them were biological siblings, but it had been years since they'd thought of each other as anything less than family. Dick and Jason had met in Juvie(2), and after they'd gotten out and been let into foster care again, they ran off and took to the streets. They learned to fight both in Juvie and on the streets. A year after they met (Dick was 12, Jason was 9) they found Tim and Damien holed up in an alley, and took them home. Six months later, Stephanie become the last member of the 'bird family' as Tim called them.

"Who were you talking to on the computer earlier Dick?" Tim asked, breaking Dick out of his thoughts.

"That's something I need to talk to you guys about." All eyes at the table focused on him questioningly.

"The Justice League asked me to join them."

His statement was met with varying reactions. Jason narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, Tim let out a soft sound between a wine and sigh, and the youngest two just looked confused.

"I told them no, but they seemed to be pretty insistent. I tried to convince them I was to young to join, but that sort of backfired, and now we've all been invited to join 'Young Justice', which is like Justice league kids edition."

Jason's eyes narrowed even more, and Dick winced.

"I'm _assuming_ you told them no?"

Another wince. "Well..."

"Are you serious!"

Dick held up his hands. "Hear me out. I told them we'd be willing to visit their headquarters and meet everybody, then give him out decision. As much as I don't like it, joining could be good idea in the long run."

Jason let out an annoyed huff, and ran a hand through his blonde hair(3).

"Fine Grayson, but only looking."

Dick smiled. "Of course."

* * *

(1) You aint old enough to drink, you aint old enough to join the superhero legion.

(2) Its cannon that originally Dick was put in Juvie since there were no available foster homes or orphanages, so in this story just assume instead of Bruce taking him in, he stayed there.

(3) I know he has either black or red hair depending on what comics you read, but I always imagined him blonde.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There is a pole up to vote on how old Dick will be, because I'm sick of trying to decide. Please leave a vote.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, there should be another up soon. Please leave a comment if you liked it, have any constructive criticism, comments, or questioned. Please note this is un-beta'd, so if you see any errors feel free to let me know.


	2. Chapter 2- Notice

Hey all : ) This is, unfortunately, not the update you were hoping for, but it is important and brings good new so please take some time to read it.

I am definitely not dropping this story any time soon. I planned to have regular updates from the start, but a whole bunch of personal things popped up over the summer, and I just couldn't get anything down. Now that the school year has started again, and things have calmed down a lot, I'll have more time and willpower to churn out chapters. I can't say exactly when I'll have the next one up, but it shouldn't be more than a week or two.

In the meantime, if any of you want to hear my head-cannons for this story, or get a sneak peak of things to come, I've included some bonus stuff below. If not, thank you for taking the time to read this note and for reading this story in general. I've got a lot of positive feedback, and it means more to me than you will ever know : )

HEAD-CANNONS and IDEAS: (warning, much of this is just brain vomit)

Dick will be a lot more tied to his only-possibly-existent-in-cannon romani/romany/roma heritage. He has darker skin, an slight accent which is more pronounced when he's really emotional or really relaxed. Sometimes in extreme circumstances he accidentally starts speaking romani (which in this fic will be google translated Romanian because there is no written romani language). He looks basically like cannon-Nightwing, but with darker skin, skinnier, and a bit shorter. He is 16, but has all the bits and bobs to pretend to be 19. He can drive, he has never gone to much school, and he works as a mechanic in Gotham.

I'm not totally sure yet where I'm going with this story's Jason. He is still more morally ambiguous than other heroes, but in this all of the flock are, and he doesn't quiet cross into anti-hero territory. His parents abandoned him to the streets when he was little, and he met Dick in juvie when he was still very young. Now he is the second oldest at 14, though he pretends to be 16. He is in school more often than not, and he has a part time job working at the docks.

Tim is pretty much like canon, but his parents died in a car crash a bit before he met the rest of the flock. (Yes, I'm totally calling them the flock forever and always now). He's 11, and in middle school. He pretend to be 14, and works part-time as a runner. (In Bludhaven, runners not only deliver packages and messages, they also come equipped with tazers).

Damian and Steph are the youngest. Damian ran away from Ra's Al Gul just before meeting Dick, so he's a bit of an odd kid. No one knows much about Stephanie, she's always been on the streets. They are 6 and 9 respectively.

Barbara is her own hero-ish thing in this story. After her time as Batgirl, she became an information gatherer and informant for the Justice League. She's friends with Dick, and helps the flock out a lot.

Wally babysits the younger kids when Dick and Jason are off doing more dangerous hero things. He has no idea about their real ages or secret identities, and they have no idea about theirs. (Can't you totally see him doing odd jobs all across the county to earn some extra cash?)

Batman is going to play a big role in this story later on. Nothing is concrete yet, but there is going to be a lot of bonding between him and all the bird kids, particularly Dick. There will also be a lot of Catwoman, because she is rad and would totally take the kids under her wing. Or paw. Whatever.

All other members of the season 1 team will also play a part, though Conner and M'gann less so than the others just because I have yet to think of a plot point with them. (This is not to say they won't be a part of events, just not central to them). I might include a couple of season 2 folks, but it's not likely.

SPOILERS: (kinda not really)

In the next chapter Dick, Tim, and Jason are going to meet YJ and maybe go on a small mission. I have yet to decide if Wally will recognize them, or if they'll recognize say anything to Wally, but you can count on it being pretty funny.


End file.
